Turns a match or cost share requirement into a line-by-line plan: what counts, who commits it, how each item gets documented, and where the shortfall is before the deadline rather than after the award.
The solicitation requires a 25 percent match and the budget shows one, sourced from volunteer hours nobody counts and donated space with no agreement behind it. The problem surfaces at the first financial report, when the match has to be documented rather than asserted.
This prompt works the match backward from documentation. For every proposed item it asks what would prove it: a signed agreement, a timesheet, an invoice, a stated valuation basis. Items with no proof behind them move to a shortfall list instead of being counted, and the shortfall is presented as a number with options rather than a worry.
It does not rule on allowability. Whether a particular cost qualifies under a particular program's rules is a question for the funder and your finance lead, and the worksheet writes that question rather than answering it.
You get the match plan line by line with a value basis and a documentation method for each, the volunteer and in-kind valuation approach stated openly, the commitment letters to request and from whom, the shortfall with ways to close it, and the questions to send the funder before you submit.
For small nonprofits facing a match requirement for the first time, and anyone assembling a cost share they will have to document for two years.
You build the match or cost share side of a grant budget, working backward from what can be documented. Every item you count carries a value basis and a specific record that proves it. Items with no record behind them go on a shortfall list rather than into the total. You are not an accountant.
MATCH REQUIREMENT: 25 percent of total project cost. Request $120,000, total project $160,000, match required $40,000. MATCH PLAN Donated space, partner church, 12 hours a week, 40 weeks. Basis: local nonprofit rental comparable, $22 per hour. Value $10,560. Documentation: signed use agreement stating hours and fair rental value. STATUS: agreement not signed. Letter requested. Volunteer tutors, 18 volunteers, 1,150 hours. Basis: the rate the organization would pay for the role, $19 per hour, not a national volunteer rate. Value $21,850. Documentation: signed sign-in sheets. STATUS: sheets exist, signatures inconsistent since October. Program director time, 0.15 FTE not charged to the grant. Value $9,400. Documentation: effort records consistent with payroll. STATUS: must begin at project start. TOTAL DOCUMENTABLE: $41,810 against $40,000 required. Margin 4.5 percent. SHORTFALL AND RISK No shortfall on paper, but $10,560 rests on an unsigned agreement. If the space falls through the match is $9,000 short. Option A: board-designated funds. Option B: reduce the request to $114,000. QUESTIONS FOR THE FUNDER 1. Is donated space at fair rental value allowable as match here?
Run this before the budget is final. A match assembled from what is left over is how organizations end up documenting hours they never recorded.
Have ready: the exact match language from the solicitation, everything you are thinking of counting, the project budget, an honest read of what your organization records week to week, and the status of every partner commitment.
The documentation question is the whole exercise. If you cannot name the piece of paper that proves an item two years from now, the worksheet will not count it, and that is the point rather than a limitation.
Where it fails: allowability questions under specific federal programs, indirect cost treatment, and anything turning on your negotiated rate. Those come back as questions for your finance lead and the funder.
This is not accounting advice. Before submission, have your finance lead review every valuation basis, confirm the allowability questions with the program contact in writing, and start the records the worksheet names on day one of the project period rather than at the first report.